The Denkai Animal Sanctuary on Tuesday addressed rumors that the shelter moved or closed, said they remain open and have adoptable dogs.
Denkai Director Floss Blackburn said she wasn’t sure how the rumor started, but that many in the community have expressed that they thought the animal sanctuary had closed or moved. Because of the confusion, Blackburn said they have lost $20,000 of revenue over the past few months, making normal operations more difficult.
“Apparently the whole town thinks that we’ve gone away. We’re getting all kinds of weird feedback that we’ve closed, that we’ve sold the building, that we moved and that we’re gone, but we’re still right here,” Blackburn said. “We’re still doing our recreation clinics, we’re still open and we still have adoptable dogs.”
“Essentially, it just killed all of our store revenue,” Blackburn said. “Now, it’s become almost impossible to operate because of it.”
Right now, Denkai has eight to 10 dogs available for adoption in store, as well as multiple dogs in foster care and at Denkai’s Hesperus location.
While Denkai is still up and running in their usual location in Cortez, Blackburn did acknowledge that their building on Main Street is for sale, which could have contributed to the confusion.
Denkai, however, will continue to operate in the building until the building sells, if it sells. If the building sells, they will remain in Cortez, just in a different location where they can open an in-house veterinary clinic.
“We have it listed for sale because we’re trying to do veterinary services, but the city basically told us there is no way they’re going to zone a full-time veterinary clinic at that location,” Blackburn said.
Because they most likely will not be able to get approval for a veterinary clinic on Main Street, Blackburn said they are exploring a few different options.
The first option would be to sell their current building and move to a different location where a full-time vet would be permitted. The other would be to have a mobile vet clinic that is located at the back of the store with a grant Blackburn said she applied for.
If the mobile clinic is the route Denkai takes, they will take their building off the market and stay.
“We want to serve the community because the need is so big,” Blackburn said.
They have also been doing and will continue to do events such as spay and neuter clinics and more, but do not have full-time staff devoted to veterinary care at the location full-time.
“What we’re doing right now is pet wellness clinics. It’s basic, affordable care and vaccines. Microchipping, worming and basic health,” Blackburn said.
With the grant Denkai received from the LOR Foundation, they will buy more equipment to start spay and neuter surgeries again.
“We’re just working really hard every day to help the community and we just really need their help back,” Blackburn said. “We need their support back so that we can continue to do this work for them, for the animals that are here. Please don’t leave us; we aren’t going away.”
